The Dutch holiday season begins every November with the arrival of Sinterklaas (the Dutch version of Santa Claus). This bearded old guy arrives on a boat from Spain and hangs around the country for two weeks leaving small gifts in children’s shoes until the real celebration day (his alleged birthday) on December 5th when he leaves the big presents. After that, on December 6th he boards his boat back to Spain, making way for the rest of the celebrations, and just like in most other western countries the excitement continues to build to a frenzy culminating on December 31st. Part of the Dutch Sinterklaas tradition is baking with Speculaas. Speculaas is a mixture of pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom and nutmeg and it is usually added to special nickel size cookies called Pepernoten (pepernuts) as well as larger size cookies, similar to gingerbread cookies which only appear during the Sinterklaas celebration. Speculaas has a wonderful smell and I can understand why any native would become very nostalgic for the magic of childhood just by walking down the street and smelling the aroma coming out of bakeries and supermarkets.

This year I decided to break with tradition and do something else: not bake! Well at least not just yet! The idea of adding Speculaas to something creamy seemed really, really appealing, and combining it with chocolate magical. This cake is sublime and super easy!

-process all the crust ingredients
-press crust in a cake form and even it out well

-put all the filling ingredients in the blender and blend except for the cacao
-blend very well at high speed until totally creamy
-pour 3/4 of the filling on the prepared crust
-put the cacao powder in the blender with what is rest of the filling and blend well
-pour cacao filling on top of the other filling creating a swirly shape
-shape further with a chopstick or a knife so that the chocolate cream penetrates the speculaas cream
-cover with plastic wrap and freeze for a couple of hours until well set
-sprinkle with cacao nibs

Last night I had a baking attack. The cause of my attack was partly restlessness and impatience because I can’t wait to get The Food Press going, partly gluttony and partly trying to avoid doing yoga (yes I have a problem….). But don’t judge me too quickly because baking late at night when nobody is around was almost as zen as my Kundalini session would have been, plus the way I whizzed around the kitchen at an ungodly hour was a total physical workout. I ended up baking late because I got caught looking through my cookbooks, which for me is more than just looking through recipes, it is more like going through some sort of of nostalgic memory lane. In my recent explorations of my very large cookbook collection (in preparation for The Food Press) I have rediscovered quite a few books. Some of these books I bought more than 20 years ago when I first came to the Netherlands, trying to recapture what I experience as a “cinnamon muffin” sort of coziness which I associate so much with the neck of the woods where I partly grew up(the East coast). I guess creating The Food Press is partially a way of recreating those feelings, smells and sense of community that I find so particularly American. Among the books that I rediscovered was Laurel’s Kitchen , from which I had never cooked anything until recently when I tried a couple of things that turned out very nicely. Although a bit outdated the book has nice common sense recipes, maybe too simple for the me of 21 years ago, but just earthy enough for the present me, and with lots of room to change things around. Nevertheless the introduction is still my favorite part of this book which gives me a fuzzy warm hippy feeling to which I easily allow myself to succumb. Another gem I came across was Wake up and Smell the Coffee by Laura Zahn. This book has a unique All-American character and many of the recipes are very veganizable, like the Coffee Cake Muffins I made last night in which I substituted an egg for 3 tbsp of chia seeds soaked in a bit of water. But my all time favorite old cookbook is the Kripalu cookbook. Again, it may be partly nostalgia or maybe some mild form of homesickness, but I love this book, and unlike the other two books mentioned earlier I have used this book throughout the years to the point that it has no cover anymore and many of its pages are loose. This is the book from which I have made my Banana Bread all these years. It is a vegan recipe and I have done nothing except follow the instructions, knowing that by the time it comes out of the oven I will have a deliciously moist, guilt-free loaf.

At about 11:30, after I had made the Banana Bread and the Coffee Cake Muffins I felt a second wind coming and a feeling that I was just beginning, so I proceeded to go ahead and make a Rye-Poppyseed-Pulp Cake. I really would share this recipe with you but unfortunately I forgot to write it down (I guess the late hour did take its toll on me after all). But since it turned out so delicious I will recommend to not forget that bag of rye flour that’s been sitting around your pantry and use it in baking cakes, it works really well (in combination with other flours). I also used the pulp from my morning pumpkin-carrot-sweetpotato juice as well as some of the pulp of the morning’s nut milk and added chia and linseed as “eggs”. Anyway I am afraid that this post is as endless last night’s baking adventure, so I will stop here and leave you with the best Banana Bread recipe ever.

-blend bananas and oil
-stir syrup into banana mix and combine with a spatula
-in another bowl mix all dry ingredients except walnuts
-add dry ingredients to the banana mixture
-mix with a spoon until well combined and add walnuts and mix again
-pour batter into a bread form and bake in a preheated oven at 375* F for about 40-50 minutes

I sometimes forget how it was that I jumped into this (healthy, plant based)cooking boat. The other day someone asked me and it brought back a bunch of memories. Although I’ve always enjoy cooking and since my teenage years toyed with the idea of not eating meat, it wasn’t until I first expected a baby that began to read about foods and health. Back in 1992 in Holland vegetarianism and health foods was still in quite a primitive state, but when visiting the American Book Center in Amsterdam I would always come home with a book related to foods in some way(Diet for a New Planet by Robbins and Diet for a Small Planet by Francis More Lappe among others). As I remember before switching definitively to plant foods I used to make a killer (no pun intended) lamb masala which my husband loved. One day after having decided to not eat meat I had the brilliant idea to go ahead and substitute the lamb for tofu…..and what a sad disaster that was! It really did taste horrible or worse yet completely bland. My husband politely ate it all and proceeded to ask (almost cry): “can we just eat meat again?” Insecurity overcame me, but didn’t completely beat me. Lo and behold the next day I received a package from the U.S from a dear friend Ellen who lived in Ithaca, the home of the Moosewood restaurants, containing almost all the Moosewood books available at the time. These books opened up a new world for me, they were my bible, security blanket as well as a key to freeing me up to learn how to cook with vegetables without feeling like a boring freak. After those books came the Kripalu cookbook and many others, over 275 to be precise. I don’t seem to get done collecting cooking books, and don’t have any plans to stop in the near future since it seems that cooking plants is becoming more and more delicious, beautiful and creative by the day and I can’t just walk into a book shop without yet another beautiful book. By this point I don’t usually follow recipes anymore (sometimes I do), but I read them like novels and admire the pictures just like I look at the great Dutch painting masters (okay almost).

This Blueberry Crumble was inspired by one of those beautiful books which I just couldn’t leave in the shop: Green Kitchen Stories. On page 37 of that lovely book (oh, I have the Dutch version so in English it will probably be on another page) you can find the original recipe. My crumble was a result of a quick scanning of the recipe and my pantry and it worked beautifully.

-mix oat flakes and baking powder
-in another bowl mix milk, seeds and vanilla
-in another small bowl mix nuts, coconut oil and sweetener
-put the blueberries in a baking pan and cover with the oat flake mix
-pour the milk and seed mix on top of oats and berries
-spread the nut, oil and sweetener mix on top of everything
-bake in a preheated oven at 190* for about 30 minutes

In a perfect world all autumn Sunday mornings would be like this one. After doing a session of Ashtanga, taking a shower and walking the dog in this beautiful golden autumn day I got to do one of my favorite Sunday morning meditations: doing the dishes. This is an activity that I truly enjoy doing as long as the rest of the loved ones are happily snoring away in their beds on the rooms above me. It is an almost sacred moment where I can empty my mind and just enjoy how the soapy warm water gently cleans each dish and then feel the warm running water wash everything away. While doing dishes I sometimes engage in planning out my day, or try to apply my yoga postures and breathing to my dishwashing movements. It may sound silly, but it really brings my yoga practice into actual practical activities. In doing the dishes I become aware of the beauty and inner peace that can be found in the mundane tasks of our daily lives.

While doing the dishes I had this overwhelming feeling of making a nutritious and delicious Sunday morning breakfast for my lovely Zen moment interruptors, who were about to pop-up into the kitchen any moment now. I had soaked hazelnuts and brazil nuts for nut milk and I had plenty of fruit around, including a large bowl of berries to make a nice breakfast bowl. I decided to make some oat flake muesli and some patties from yesterday’s leftover quinoa and buckwheat. By the time my dear creatures began appearing in the kitchen the nut milk was done and the muesli was in the oven. I continued with my preparations for the healthiest ever breakfast while all of a sudden realizing that one of my dearest creatures had made his own plan and had a cast iron pan on the fire with 3 eggs and several slices of bacon! Okay now was a good moment to put my yoga breathing into practice…… nevertheless a beautiful Sunday morning.

-but everything in the blender and blend.
-put about a cup of the fruit blend in a bowl
-add some chopped fresh fruit
-add about 1/2 cup of muesli or granola
-sprinkle with maca and some hemp powder if you like and pour a bit more nut milk on top for a more subtle flavor

In preparation for the opening of The Food Press I am trying to document and be good about keeping continuity, deciding on a certain menu and not deviating from it, writing down recipes and not only having fun creating things. But…. it’s not easy to not get carried away, since after all what can be more fun than constantly thinking, experimenting, tasting and trying out new things? And really, some things are so simple that it becomes almost embarrassing to write them down or even take them seriously at all. Today for example I was home learning how to use a new and fancier food processor that we are going to be using at The Food Press when all of a sudden I came up with a combination that made me jump with excitement in a foodie nerd sort of way. I was trying to figure out how the small bowl of the food processor worked and I decide to just throw some left over seeds and nuts I had around, one thing let to another and tah-taaaah these little delightful things emerged. Yes I have made nut balls or truffle like things before and I am sure you probably have too, but what made these little gems so enchanting was powdering them up. Rolling them up in spirulina, turmeric, maca and cacao gave them a distinguished lady like appearance. The taste was lovely as well, the strong taste of these powders was balanced beautifully by the ingredients of the truffles.

There is just one thing however, I don’t have quantities for this recipe since it was only a food processor try-out, so it’s up to you to go play with your food processor and decide.

It has been a while since I last made time to write stuff down, but I certainly haven’t been sitting around. I have been cooking and experimenting more than ever and that is because as of November we will be the happy owners of a juice bar/cafe/catering in the center of my town. This is a little dream that has been developing in different ways for the last 20 years and it seems that for some strange reason providence decided that this was the right time for this dream to materialize! In the coming time (if time permits) I hope to be posting about this new baby of mine. We came to live in Almere, a city about 30 minutes from Amsterdam . Almere is an interesting phenomenon since it is a true example of Dutch ingenuity. It is a city which was created from land gained from the sea. As a result it is nothing like the images that most of us associate with Holland: old, gingerbread style houses, canals, gable stones, small scale coziness and wooden shoes. Almere is new, the architecture here is mostly very geometric, houses are slightly bigger(for Dutch standards) and the citizens keep more to themselves, often commuting to and from Amsterdam for work. Coming to live here eight years ago was a great shock for me, since this futuristic city didn’t feed my imagination and to be blunt I found it quite ugly. But, just like everything in life things, cities and people change and Almere has taken a change for the better. The architecture has become more interesting. Newer trendier shops are appearing and most importantly (to me) I have changed how I see this town. Where I saw lack, I began to see possibilities and that has made all the difference. One of the things that made Almere so unattractive and futuristic to me was what I experienced as a lack of community. Here there have been no tiny cafes or quirky shops, just the “normal” things to satisfy your basic needs (okay, with maybe a tiny bit extra!), for the fun inspirational stuff one has had to go to Amsterdam. Well that’s changing and I am proud to say that our Juice bar-Cafe will a part of the change. Our shop is tiny, just big enough for 5 tables, and big enough to serve as setting for all those like minded souls who are craving for that cozy, trendy, organic, delicious, homemade, healthy hangout. We will be working with local produce and farmers and hope to serve as a source of inspiration and warmth for all those out there who feel the need for a smile and good food. Our baby is called The Food Press and just like with any regular baby the preparations before its actual physical arrival has been intense. As of now the contractors are running somewhat behind which has made us postpone our opening day, but our goal remains sometime in November.

One of the most important aspects of The Food Press is that we want to only sell stuff that we make ourselves. That means juices, smoothies (made with our own sprouted nut milks), bowls with fresh products from our salad bar, cakes, muffins etc as well as French Press and cold pressed coffee. In the process of preparing our menu I have gone back to look for recipes which are delicious, economically feasible and healthy. I remember that years ago (in my macro period) I often made and eat Oshawa cake. I had a great recipe somewhere from a macrobiotic study I once followed. I used this recipe many times, but it was not part of a cooking book, it was just a lose sheet. Every time I used it I thought: next time I need this I won’t be able to find it. Well yesterday I couldn’t find it, but I remembered the basics, which are extremely simple. Funny enough I happened to look through Rens Kroe’s trendy new book Power Foods and found a recipe for this very old fashion recipe. This helped me with some quantities, but in reality a recipe is hardly necessary. So, enjoy your left over brown rice!

-preheat oven to 325*
-oil a cake form spread three quarter of the sesame seeds on the cake form to cover bottom and cover sides and bottom with three quarter of the sesame seeds
-mix all the other ingredients in a large bowl and put mixture in the prepared form
-press it with your wet hands so that it fills the form well
-bake for about 45 minutes
-let it cool before taking it out of the form

And you are all thinking: Oh no, not another hummus recipe on a cooking blog!!!! I know, I know….. No I am not posting this hummus recipe by default. Never mind that I have loads of papers to grade and couldn’t think of anything else to make for lunch that was quick and nutritious. I am posting this recipe because this hummus is delicious and quickly made, has a light taste, it’s loaded with protein and makes a perfect sandwich, snack or part of a salad. Although I really like tahini in general this humus is tahiniless, since I don’t like the heaviness that it creates in this otherwise fresh summery dish. Chickpeas are creamy enough on their own, specially combined with olive oil.

-purée the chick peas, olive oil, lemon juice, one clove of garlic chopped and salt with a hand blender until creamy, stir in the chopped black olives and some of the chopped cilantro leaves
-in a heavy frying pan heat the 2 tbs. olive oil and add the cumin, chili pepper and other piece of garlic chopped.
-stir for a couple of minutes until fragrant
-place the chickpea purée in a serving bowl and drizzle with the olive oil cumin mixture
-sprinkle the hummus generously with powdered paprika
-sprinkle the roasted pine nuts on top
-drizzle with a bit more olive oil and possibly a bit more lemon juice
-garnish with cilantro, parsley or chives (I didn’t have any today)

Don’t you just love the feeling of being able to whip-up some elegant looking dish in less than 10 minutes and wow everyone around you and most of all yourself? Well, this Green Pea Tapenade will do that for you!
It has been a long and wonderfully hot weekend filled with activities. This hot weekend has really lent itself to light food with minimal cooking time and fresh tastes and colors. Stuff that you can just eat in the garden while drinking a glass of wine with friends or finishing that book which you only have time to read on the weekends. In our family’s case that would be food which lends itself to being made while major busyness is taking place around the house, like painting the house, helping out with homework, making summer plans, talking to your BFF for hours on the phone, grading papers etc….At about 11 today I thought of making this tapenade. I realized that I had almost finished a bag of raw fresh peas all on my own, since every time I passed by the refrigerator I would stick my hands in a bag filled with peas which I would greedily eat while doing something else. That is, eat the ones that wouldn’t fall on the floor to be eaten by the dog in the process of me putting them in my mouth while multi tasking and doing god knows what at the same time. I figured I’d better think of something to do with the rest of the peas to avoid getting extremely bloated by eating an excess of raw peas as well as to prepare something to eat that others beside myself could appreciate and enjoy. This recipe is very easy and can be eaten in a much more elegant way than I ate those raw peas while roaming around the house. It can be used as a tapenade, on a sandwich, pizza or as a part of a salad platter and please accompany it with a glass of sparkling white wine! Feel free to use frozen peas if you don’t have fresh ones, although in that case you may get less of the nutty crispy taste and a more of a humus like texture.

-blanch the peas in boiling water for about 2 minutes
-drain the peas and put them in a bowl
-drizzle with good quality olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt to taste
-blend with the hand blender (it doesn’t need to be totally puree)
-drizzle with lemon juice
-stir in the chopped spring onions
-adjust the salt and sprinkle with pepper if you like

Enjoying this beautiful Dutch spring day! School vacation is almost around the corner and I am beginning to feel inspired to come out of my long hibernation to the world of ideas and inspiration. One of my main sources of inspiration in the last month has been a recent visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where I followed a route of paintings chosen by the modern Swiss philosopher Alain de Botton under the title Art is Therapy. This exhibit reminded me of the wonderful role that art has in our everyday life. Specially when looking at the famous paintings of Dutch 17th century artists which often play tribute to the everyday work of art of which we are all part of and in which we all participate, like organizing our linen cupboard, just like in Pieter de Hooch’s painting The Linen Closet. We’ve all organized our closets, washed our dishes or done other less seemingly artistic activities or dignified shores, but what de Botton points to us, among other things is that works of arts such as The Linen Closet can remind us of the significance of our daily activities in creating a pleasant and beautiful life and that maybe doing these activities with a sense of purpose will bring a certain needed dignity, peace and beauty to our lives.

I couldn’t help but to feel a sense of connection between Art is Therapy and The Art is Cooking.

“Art can help us to remember stuff.”

“Art can make us less strange to ourselves.”

” Art can make us feel simultaneously happy and sad.”

The Linen Closet’, a modest domestic scene by the 17th-century Dutch painter Pieter de Hooch.

-put everything in the blender and puree until smooth
-you can the choose to use an ice-cream machine and follow the manufacture’s instructions or put the mixture in a container in the freezer. In this case after a couple of hours in the freezer blend again with a hand blender to avoid ice crystals and do this every 2 hours until the ice-cream is frozen and has the right creamy consistency.

-cut the banana in 1/2 vertically a and shallow fry in the coconut oil
-place 1/2 of the baked banana in a serving cup
-scoop the ice-cream to the side of the banana
-drizzle with the extra honey (if using) and the dusting of cinnamon and top with the pecan nuts

Easter brunch is a tradition in our family. Usually the Easter bread with almond filling is made the day before and early on Sunday morning I’ll get up to make the rest which I shouldn’t really call brunch but Brunchner, since I truly fill up the table so that we can be continually eating from breakfast till dinner non-stop. Beside the standard stuff like tea, juice, bread, soy yogurt and some non vegan stuff for the less stricter or non veganlly oriented among us, we always have granola and tofu scramble. The rest of the menu usually depends on how creative I (or my kids) are feeling on that weekend. This year my daughter Ella took care of the Easter bread and the cinnamon rolls, which also have become part of our Brunchner tradition. I made the tofu scramble, which I thought came out finger linking due to a spontaneous brilliant idea I had due to some left over cashew nuts I had soaking on the counter. I also found a fantastic recipe for vegetable rolls rapped with rice paper from My New Roots blog(one of the most inspirational healthy cooking blogs I have seen so far), and concocted a fresh tomato salsa, potato pancakes and chocolate mousse. Daughter Anna took care of setting the table and making tea and coffee and Tim is our house photographer who makes most of the pictures on this blog. Cyrille usually is our D.J. and mostly concentrates on making sure that we get to hear the best possible recording of St. Matthew’s passion. This year however Ella took over the music with a beautiful recording of a Mendelssohn string quartet and Cyrille dug in the garden until the food was ready.Our oldest son didn’t show up until later in the afternoon since he had slept in after having had a recital the night before.

– mix oat flakes, cinnamon, maple syrup and coconut oil in a bowl.
– add seeds and nuts
– put the mixture in an oven tray
– bake stirring regular to prevent burning
– when the flakes are golden brown remove from the tray from the oven and add the coconut and raisins and the optional fruits.
– serve with almond milk or (soy) yogurt

– crumble the tofu with your hands into a bowl
– in a broad heavy pan heat the olive oil and add the onion and garlic and sauté for 2 or 3 minutes
– add the bell peppers and corn and saute for a couple of more minutes
– add the grated carrots
– add the tofu and the herbs
– cook for 5 minutes stirring regularly
– add the mustard, and salt
– pour the cashew cream and saute a couple of minutes
– turn off the fire and add the parsley

Serve with salsa

Vegetable Rolls

I would say to just look at this link and while you’re at it look through the whole amazing blog.

Chocolate Mousse

For this I mostly just improvised with the following ingredients in the blender: